Sometimes when I see crowds of people and realize how few know Jesus as Lord and savior I’m almost overcome with a sense the immensity of the task of reaching these people with the Gospel.

I share my faith where I can but wish I was a super evangelist to reach so many more- surely that would be the answer?

Didn’t the early church grow because of the preaching of Paul and Peter and other apostles? Well yes they played a vital and important part, but the early church grew through the work of the Holy Spirit using the simple process of multiplying disciples who made other disciples.

I was reading a book on disciple making and it outlined the following scenario-

Charlie a new Christian is on fire and reaches one new person every week. After for 15 years he has reached 780 people and after 33 years, 1,716 people! Amazing effectiveness. Charlie’s Brother Sam is even more effective and reaches an average of one new person every day. After 15 years he has reached 5,475 and by 33 years he has reached 12,045. Wow we need more Sams I thought!

Then there was “Mary” who only won 1 person every year and trained them to do the same. After 15 years she had reached 32,768 and by 33 years had reached 8, 589, 934,592 !!! This is more than the population of the entire world (Billy Hanks Jr and Randy Craig Becoming a Disciple Maker (2013) pp 94-95). This simple principle used by Mary was the powerful methodology of spiritual multiplication utilized by the rapidly growing early church and by the current explosive growth of the church in places like China. So that’s my prayer and goal to reach and disciple at least one new person per year and train them to do the same! While clearly not every person will accept Christ, if all existing Christians did this faithfully, the entire world could indeed be reached in a generation! Wow. By The Holy Spirits Power this goal is not impossible!

“This Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” Matt 24:14.